An alternative broadband method for automatic measurement of the complex permeability and permittivity of materials at microwave frequencies

A broadband method is reported for the simultaneous measurement of the complex permeability and permittivity of lossy microwave solid materials or liquids that uses an automatic network analyzer technique. Two reflection coefficient measurements are made for two different thicknesses of the same material. It is shown that the most useful cases arise when the pairs of thicknesses d and 2d, d and 3d, or 2d and 4d are used, where d is the smallest available thickness of the material to be measured. Both theoretical and practical aspects of the technique are discussed.<>